


incongruous

by Anonymous



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: !!!!, Assassin!Yixing, Captain!Junmyeon, Cop!Baekhyun, M/M, i'm the worst at tagging things ://
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-07 00:21:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11612028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: yixing never expected for the police to be going after him, he certainly never expected for his boyfriend to be leading the case either.





	incongruous

**Author's Note:**

> this is really my first time writing something like this!! so forgive any glaring mistakes please. regardless of that i hope it's not totally hateable!

it was not a special day. there was no downpour of rain to symbolize the loss of life that would take place. there was no below freezing weather to ice the shock of the loss. it was not a holiday, nor was it during a significant event. it was an ordinary day, an ordinary death.

 

of course there was a deep desire for _lay’s_ work to be known, to be feared, but he knew better. he was not an amateur, not an assassin straight out of the movies, he was real and in this line of work gaudiness and flashing your fancy, unique assets and weaponry would only lead to getting caught easily. there’s a reason _lay’s_ been at large for so long, and there’s a reason no one even _knows_ who he is. _lay’s_ line of work required intelligence, it required being able to keep your damn mouth shut, and most importantly it required discretion. _lay_ has managed to stay under the radar for the entirety of his career as an assassin, which hasn’t been too long really, but long enough for him to go down as the assassin to go for when you want someone to go quietly.

 

of course, some things may coincide with the already preconceived notion of assassins. to be an assassin you must be physically fit and your strikes must be as swift as they are brutal. some cliches may say the act must be poetically cruel, must have a sense of beauty even in the bare ugliness of the action. _lay_ doesn’t care much for analogies when it comes to his job. he does what he does for the money, that’s it. he’s not a sick person who enjoys the death he causes - but some might say that him seemingly living with it calmly makes him exactly that - alright maybe he _is_ a sick person, but it really doesn’t matter anymore. it’s easy to set your morality aside when you do what is needed to be done in order to bring food onto the table.

 

currently, he was doing the last observations of his latest victim. the husband of one of the richest and most influential politicians in south korea, poor guy probably had no clue his own wife wanted him out of the way. he didn’t normally take jobs in abroad, let alone in south korea, not since he originally left, but the pay was good enough. his korean was still near fluent enough to be passed on as a native speaker, so it wouldn’t be hard to blend in. plus, with a smaller country it’s easier to keep an eye on the police. if baekhyun was any indication.

 

typically, scoping out really only took a few days at most. _lay_ wasn’t extravagant with his assassinations, he didn’t usually spend hours on a rooftop across the victim’s residence with a sniper waiting for the perfect time to take them out, he often didn’t kidnap his victim and drawl out the assassination to last a couple days, no, he mostly merely observed the victims to find the best way possible to play it off as a natural death, or an accident, nothing to tip the scales towards murder.

 

checking his watch, he realized it was almost time.

 

of course, sometimes the situation called for a bloody, gruesome murder, but that only came with a spike in the prices, and a special request. it wasn’t his favorite thing, being cruel, but if it paid well…

 

he took a moment to collect himself, to quiet down the storm brewing under his skin, and only when he was completely calm did he strike.

 

//

 

“good evening, only a few moments ago was the death of kim youngjin, husband of politician kim jiyoung, was confirmed from seoul national university hospital. youngjin, aged thirty-nine, was enjoying a lunch with his wife when he was struck with a heart attack. authorities say-” baekhyun groaned in frustration, wanting to break the television but it’s the station’s television and breaking it would cost him money he just didn’t have right now. another day, another death, and yet he wasn’t any closer to even _starting_ his newest case. this case would ruin him, and it was his last chance at regaining his reputation as one of the best detectives in the precinct. months and months of unsolved cases were piled onto baekhyun’s plate, and he didn’t know what to think. the cases have all stayed unsolved, and whenever he believes he’s closer to a lead it completely disappears, and he’s stuck with yet another open case that has yet to be solved.

 

this case would prove to be the hardest, as it was really only based on word of mouth rather than actual evidence. he sighed, this would be absolutely impossible. lifting his head from his hands, he stared into the (mostly) empty file in front of him. his case was to try and track down an assassin by the name of ‘ _lay_ ’, but that was all the information he had. the assassin’s gender, age, height, weight, and appearance wasn’t even mentioned, which is why this case would be near impossible to solve. how can you track someone down you don’t even know the first thing about? his cases weren’t normally easy, and he wasn’t asking for easy, he was asking for fucking solvable. if he could solve this case then he was sure this habit of his involving unsolved cases would finally come to an end. patience was never his strong suit either, which is why the cases he’s been working on have only been piling up, if he can’t solve one he tries to move to another one he thinks may be solvable. but with this case he was determined to stay focused on, even if it was the most impossible case to exist.

 

“can you stop sighing so constantly baekhyun? we get it you’re frustrated.” jongdae quipped from the other side of baekhyun’s desk. now baekhyun loves jongdae, he’s one of his closest friends outside of the precinct, but sometimes the urge to throttle him was unbearable, especially now that he’s caught in another one of his incurable bad moods. baekhyun threw him a cold look instead, deciding that throttling his best friend wasn’t the smartest of choices.

 

“i’m really never gonna solve this fucking case jongdae, and if i don’t solve it i’ll just settle for quitting. it’s unreal how many cases i’ve had that i _can’t_ solve. the captain is this close to telling me to pack my shit up, god knows i would if i was in his place!” he didn’t even realize he was near shouting by the end of it, all this unaccomplished work is taking its toll on him. jongdae didn’t punch him in the face for how unbelievably rude he was being, he just got up from his chair to sit on baekhyun’s desk.

 

“we know how annoying this has been on you, and the captain doesn’t blame you, nor will he _fire_ you you’ve been working here for how long? five years, and only now have you found it hard to solve a case, it’s a phase. you’ve hit a bump, but you’ll bounce right back, like you always do.” jongdae’s voice was soft as he tried to comfort his friend. truth is he had no clue how to help baekhyun, he refused any of their help on the cases he worked on, always muttering something about it being his problem and that he’d solve it on his own. it was times like this jongdae wanted to shake baekhyun until he realized he wouldn’t be able to do it all alone.

 

“have you seen this case! it’s impossible i’m telling you, no one even knows anything about this ‘ _lay_ ’ individual! and all the “assassinations” are accidents or natural causes, no motive or suspects behind them either.” baekhyun groaned, why did he think he would be able to make this solvable?

 

“if it’s as unsolvable as you say it is, then drop the case…or you can just suck it up and ask for help with it.” baekhyun knew he was beginning to aggravate jongdae, could see it in the way his lips suddenly became tightly set and his voice rose an octave higher than it once was, so he dropped the matter.

 

“oh whatever, it’ll work itself out i guess.” or at least, he hoped it would ( _really_ hoped it would actually). being a cop has never been easy, but this was defining a new level of complex. did anyone else think he was as hopeless as he believes himself to be?

 

//

 

yixing’s job was straightforward. he was a nurse, one that only recently (it would only be a year exactly next week) transferred to one of the most prestigious hospitals located in seoul. at least that was his day job. sometimes, only when requested, did he stray from his day job to pursue a career that may be the literal opposite of what he originally set out to do. come on, how many nurses save lives by day only to end them by night?

 

sometimes, he found himself actually laughing at the fact that the other _three_ nurses that work with him are assassins as well, they don’t know about him but he’s observant enough to guess. besides, each of them know about each other so when they speak about their second job when they think yixing can’t hear it’s usually about the….assignments they need to finish up. it wasn’t that they were chatty loudmouths, to be fair to them, yixing just listened in on most of their conversations. he was almost sure jongin and sehun were partners, but it’s hard to be sure unless he’s seen them working. kyungsoo however, seemed like he worked alone. his input wasn’t the same as sehun’s or jongin’s input, but they were usually more important if yixing was going to be honest.

 

“did you hear that cop, what’s his name? the loud, nosy one?” jongin said, eyebrows furrowed trying to remember the name.

 

“baekhyun?” sehun chimed.

 

 _baekhyun?_ his _baekhyun?_

 

“yes! him!” jongin exclaimed, “well anyway, you know that…person everyone in our line of work talks about?” he leaned in to the other two, trying to muffle his voice, “ _lay._ everyone knows he’s almost a myth, but the cops have seemed to catch on. i heard from my guy at the station that the fucking _cops_ have caught onto that thread…if they’re going after that _lay_ person then that means we have to keep a lower profile, people in our line of work doubt _lay’s_ existence, so if the cops have got on that trail that means they’re more observant now, or someone snitched. either way, we need to lay low for a while. just thought i’d mention it to you.” normally that would invoke some sort of warm feeling, seeing someone look out for someone else, but in their line of work it just meant there was something _seriously_ wrong. yixing wasn’t in the room with them, actually they were all alone and they thought no one was anywhere near this room, but yixing was as quiet as a mouse when he needed to be.

 

 _the cops? baekhyun? after_ lay? _after him?_

 

it just didn’t make sense, no matter how hard he thought of it. he became close with baekhyun for this _very_ reason, to keep an eye out for any red flags but he never expected something like this. how would they even _know_ about him? even his clients go through hell and back trying to confirm that he is indeed, a real assassin. someone must have said something, otherwise this knowledge they have would have been impossible to obtain. yixing knew it wasn’t worth being worked up about, his clients had no clue who he was nor what he looked like, so it would be impossible to trace him…but he still wanted to keep an eye on it, just in case anything…unpleasant were to occur.

 

_no panicking. you have baekhyun._

 

//

 

it’s been a few days and _lay’s_ new assignment was not one he’d usually take with the circumstances surrounding him, especially not when it’s baekhyun who’s in charge of sniffing around, but he needed the money. this one was messy, and surprisingly enough he was sitting across a rooftop with a sniper waiting on his latest victim. for special cases like this, the clients didn’t even _know_ it was _lay_ who was working for them, to reduce any chance of him being linked to the case of course. the investigation that would take place should revolve around framing someone else for this, at least that’s what _lay_ was guessing. if it were him - and he was some important politician or heir of some important company - he’d hire someone to take someone close to him then work on framing his competitors…maybe he’s been working as an assassin for too long, if he’s having these thoughts.

 

after a few days of following the victim and tracking her every move, _lay_ knew she’d be here at exactly quarter till noon. it was twenty to noon so he had some time to make sure everything was in place. as per usual, he willed himself into the deadly calm that came over him when he was going to assassinate someone.

 

with a deep breath, and the victim in sight, _lay_ pulled the trigger.

 

he didn’t wait for the storm to follow after her death, he quickly packed up his supplies and left as quickly as possible, trying (successfully) to blend in with the crowd that would surround the building after the gunshot.

 

this is what he does, it may not be pleasant, it may go against quite a few moral codes, but he does what he needs to provide.

 

//

 

**_twenty-three year old woman murdered while enjoying afternoon tea. police say no suspects have been taken into custody and no leads as of yet._ **

****

baekhyun releases a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. it’s been _weeks_ since he began his case on the mysterious assassin _lay_ \- if this _lay_ person even exists - and he has yet to come up with a single lead. the station had been swarming with journalists since the murder of the young girl a couple of hours beforehand, seeing as the case should fall under this station’s jurisdiction, and the horde of people and the noise they bring along wasn’t helping him think either. he grabbed the useless file with _nothing_ in it and headed for the captain’s office and knocked the door.

 

the captain, who eventually became one of baekhyun’s closest friend, looks up at baekhyun’s face and immediately baekhyun can tell captain junmyeon is just as aggravated as he is - just much better at hiding it. baekhyun had never been one to be able to control his expressions, so if he was angry or disgusted everyone knew immediately.

 

“captain, do you mind if i take this case home for the night? with all these people swarming the station i won’t be able to get anything done.” junmyeon may be one of his closest friends but he still demanded to keep it professional at work, to separate their personal lives and professional lives completely.

 

“you can work from home for a few hours but i may have to call you in if this gets any more…out of hand.”

 

“that’s fine with me. thank you sir.” with that said, baekhyun left the station through the back door lest he be bombarded with questions from the press currently camping in the entrance of the station.

 

he wondered when yixing would come home. yixing was a nurse, but sometimes the long hours he spent at the hospital seemed as if he were working as a doctor. though the two live together, sometimes days pass before they see each other. he missed him.

 

hopefully with the quieter environment he’d be able to find _any_ thread of a lead to pick up on. he _needed_ this case to work out for him.

 

//

 

yixing was in the hospital working his shift when he saw jongin, sehun, and kyungsoo quietly duck away from the public eye into a more private room. he figured if it was important enough to discuss during work, it should be something he needs to hear. that or, he’s just nosy.

 

either way, he snuck into some place close enough to hear what they’d be saying, but not close enough for them to notice him listening in.

 

“my _friend_ at the station told me they’re not onto anyone but this _lay_ person, and that the case was near unsolvable anyway due to the lack of information on _lay.”_ jongin’s voice was hushed, almost whispering and yet yixing was still able to make out what he was saying.

 

“does this mean we can stop laying low?” sehun whispered back which yixing found strange, he was almost sure they were working together so why wouldn’t he have known this beforehand?

 

“it _means_ it looks like we’re gonna need to lay low for longer than we thought. if this case is near unsolvable they may mistake _any_ of us as this _lay_ person, which would never be a good thing.” kyungsoo sounded aggravated, yixing was aggravated too. he just wanted to know who would willingly hand him over in such a way, not that there was much to hand over thanks to his anonymity.

 

yixing needed to put an end to this case, but the question is _how?_ it’s been days since he found out about it but he has yet to come up with a solution to his very pressing problem. he could just break into the department and find a way to stop it but he’d have security measures to take into account, and the possibility of him getting caught wasn’t worth the risk to him.

 

he _could_ try with baekhyun and try and sabotage the case, but there were too many _if_ s in this situation. _if_ baekhyun even shared enough with yixing about the case? _if_ baekhyun was even up for talking about this case, usually he’d keep all his cases a secret. although…the past few months haven’t been very helpful to baekhyun, seeing as though he’s had tons of cases piling up on him, maybe with the stress he’d spill enough to yixing? but yixing didn’t know if he had the heart to ruin something like this for baekhyun by using him, of course that was how their relationship started but something changed. it’s different now, yixing _likes_ baekhyun, he likes him so much it’s almost concerning to him, and he knows staying close to baekhyun when he truly developed feelings for him would end very, very badly for the two of them…and yet yixing can’t bring himself to let baekhyun go.

 

…he _could_ get someone high up enough in the government to use their connections to get rid of this case, the police force is corrupt enough for him to get away with it, but that would expose _lay’_ s existence to more people than he’d like…if done right it _could_ work out for him.

 

_who have i killed for that’s high up enough to have them make this problem of mine disappear?_

//

 

baekhyun was near enough to giving up on this damned case. _weeks_ of investigating, _weeks_ of trying to catch onto any thread that would get him _anywhere_ else than square one on this case and so far, he’s still on square one.

 

“can you _please_ stop thinking about your fucking case baekhyun!” of course the only thing to shake him out of being lost in thought was jongdae’s loud voice in his ear.

 

“ _hey!_ it’s important!” he pretended to be thinking deeply, which resulted in some laughs from jongdae but he quickly withheld.

 

“ _god_ neither of you have said much yet but it’s already become a whining fest. baekhyun pay attention us and not you’re annoyingly hard case,” jongdae smirked at minseok for agreeing with him, “oh _no,_ wipe that smirk off your face and keep your voice down, lay off baekhyun this case has been too much on him.”

 

“can we please just eat in peace? we don’t have much left in our lunch breaks left, and i’d rather not have junmyeon yell at us for being late, _again.”_ chanyeol throws a pointed look in baekhyun’s direction. “didn’t you say yixing would join us?” chanyeol attempted to change the subject.

 

“yeah…he said he’d be here, i wonder why he’s not….” he pulled out his phone to dial yixing’s number but he was quickly interrupted.

 

“speak of the devil and he appears!” he hears an all too familiar laugh in the background and he puts his phone away. yixing was late, but at least he showed up. it’s been _days_ since he last saw him and he could barely contain his excitement in finally seeing him. they all acknowledge yixing with a nod but baekhyun. how can baekhyun hold himself in like that?

 

he stood up to greet his boyfriend with an organ crushing hug, he knows it’s stupid, the way he’s acting, but a few days of not seeing yixing added to the fact that he’s been having a hard time at work wasn’t the best of combinations. so causing your boyfriend’s death via crushing him is justified here.

 

“why haven’t we seen each other in so long?” baekhyun asks when they finally sit down, he’s proud of himself for only _slightly_ pouting.

 

“you know how it is at the hospital…i don’t get to see you when i’m home either.” he counters. yixing _does_ sound overworked, he can see the shadows blooming under his eyes which mirror baekhyun’s own as well. they were both working too hard, but where yixing accomplishes _much_ more than baekhyun has been recently is where the two differ. yixing helps saves lives on a daily basis and baekhyun sits behind his desk at work for hours, eyes burning trying to solve _one_ of the cases that he’s working on, namely the _lay_ case, but it’s resulted in nothing so far. he doesn’t reply to yixing but rather chooses to lace their hands together and try to enjoy the limited amount of time they had together until they see each other again, which could be in another few days.

 

“i’ve missed you so much.” yixing whispers into his ear as they hug each other goodbye. it feels nice to be in yixing’s arms again, the last time they saw each other may have been a few days prior but they met only momentarily, they didn’t have time to sit and enjoy each other’s company much before both of them were called into work.

 

“much more, trust me.” the weekend was coming up soon, maybe yixing would take this weekend off fully to spend time _away_ from that hospital. he hoped he would, their apartment gets rather quiet when he’s there by his lonesome.

 

they kissed each other goodbye and that was that. they both had to return to work.

 

//

 

yixing was uncomfortable all throughout that lunch. he kept thinking about _baekhyun_ being the one to hunt _lay_ down. out of all the people who worked at their station, why did it have to baekhyun of all people?

 

an unexpected wave of shame and fear found its way into yixing’s gut and settled there, waiting…biding its time until he were to be exposed to baekhyun. _if_ he were ever to be exposed to baekhyun, and yixing was going to do everything in his power to keep baekhyun _away_ from the truth.

 

yixing wasn’t stupid, he knew what he was doing was undeniably wrong, and he didn’t think baekhyun would ever think he was worth loving or being with. yixing also knew what he was doing was a grave mistake, he was never supposed to love baekhyun. baekhyun was just a way for him to keep a close eye on the police. now everything he’s worked to keep a secret might be exposed, not only that but exposed to the one person who means the world and more to him.

 

he _needs_ to keep baekhyun away from this, as far away from this as possible.

 

//

 

someone called the station in yesterday, a tip for the _lay_ case. they said one name and the line was cut off.

 

 ** _kim sunhwa._** the name of the woman recently murdered. baekhyun thought they would be two different cases but now that the tip came through he’s had yet _another_ case on his hands. though if this case _was_ linked to _lay_ it would just merge into the pile of nothing to be figured out file that is _lay’s_ case. baekhyun is about to let out another loud frustrated groan when the station’s radio replaces his usual loudness.

 

**_“body found along the coast of the han river, the victim seems to be an middle aged man, and the body has not decomposed much which points to this crime being committed more recently. the victim’s body shows signs of struggle, but no evidence of who the assailant is.”_ **

****

immediately after hearing this, there’s a commotion at the station. an uproar of detectives claiming to be the ones who have to go and investigate.

 

“jongdae. baekhyun. go look into this.” captain junmyeon stepped out of his office at the uproar and nodded in the pair’s direction. the other detectives didn’t complain much but baekhyun knew they thought _anyone_ should have gone instead of baekhyun. he can’t say he disagrees with them, with his recent inability to solve any cases he didn’t think he was the one to check this case out, but he knew there was no use arguing with the captain, they may be friends but junmyeon takes separating his personal life from his professional life.

 

the two detectives hastily grab at their jackets and notepads and make for the door.

 

“these murders have been happening too often for me to think they’re all just a coincidence don’t you think?” jongdae asks.

 

“yeah it’s true, they’ve been happening at such a strange rate too…you think they’re connected?” it never occurred to baekhyun that they all could be connected until jongdae brought it up. if they _were_ connected, _how_ were they connected? the last few alone…one natural death, one assassination, and now this murder, what tied them all together? there must be more they’re not connecting to it. one of the victim’s names was used as a tip for the _lay_ case, (which, now that he thought about it, was strange considering the case isn’t public, how did that person even _know_ about the case?) could this mean _lay_ had anything to do with the previous cases? if so, why are they so inconsistent with their assassinations? it’s smart on their behalf to throw the cops off by not having a consistent pattern with their assassinations, but did they _have_ to make baekhyun’s case that much harder?

 

“i heard the tip from today, weird that someone even _knew_ about the case. have you told anyone about it?” jongdae seems to have read baekhyun’s mind, although he isn’t surprised the pair think too much alike.

 

“that’s what i was thinking! could it have been someone from the station though? i haven’t told anyone outside the station about the case.” baekhyun keeps pondering aloud, he hadn’t even told yixing about it, determined to keep any future disappointments a secret from him. besides, they haven’t even seen each other enough recently to talk about each other’s work.

 

“maybe, but who of us would it have been? none of us would be shy about bringing any information about the case to you if need be, so _why_ would anyone feel the need to call in like that?”

 

“maybe it could get them in trouble? maybe they know this _lay_ person?” baekhyun suggested, his mind already churning trying to make rationalize something that was currently irrational to him. this case felt so _close_ but that would be impossible, there’s basically nothing to it. all of this was just speculation.

 

“if they know this _lay_ person why would they be working at a police station?”

 

“they could be used to keep tabs on the police force?” even as he said it, it didn’t seem likely to him. there was something so crucial about this case missing but how would they even know what it is?

 

“no that’s unlikely, why would they be calling in tips to sell someone out who put them where they are?”

 

“let’s wrap this discussion up for later and focus on the murder we’re here to investigate. shall we?” baekhyun barely even noticed that they arrived upon their destination, but all that talk about the case served to make him more determined to find something that could link this to any of the other recent murders. for once it didn’t seem like this case was as hopeless as he thought it would be.

 

//

 

 _fuck,_ yixing is so _fucked._ how was he to explain the bruises adorning his cheek and along his arms to others? _especially_ to baekhyun?

 

he called in his highest connection to help him get this damned case off his back. he’s afraid to go back to his shared apartment sometimes - which is irrational of course - he knows this case is filled with dead-ends but that doesn’t stop the worrying and paranoia that gnaw at him. yixing knows that if it were anyone but baekhyun looking into this, he wouldn’t be so worked up about it, but something about baekhyun being the one to see through this case ate at him like nothing else. this behavior of his (which he hoped would recede once the initial shock of the matter wore off) is dragging him down, he knows he could be careless and leave evidence behind if he were to start giving into this unfounded fear, so he tries to stifle it as much as he can.

 

his busted lip and bloody nose continue to gush out enough blood for him to be seeing spots in his vision. he would not be able to tend to himself in this state. he reluctantly called kyungsoo, eyes squinting at the screen in hopes of calling the right person and half deliriously gave him the address to his apartment.

 

twenty minutes later, as yixing is trying to keep conscious he hears a knock on the door and as carefully as possible, he makes his way to open it. he’s cautious of his surroundings, lest he hit something his blurry vision blocked him from being able to properly see.

 

kyungsoo took the older man’s appearance in with his wide eyes, almost scanning him for injuries.

 

“s-sorry, didn’t…didn’t know who else to call…” it was an increasing effort to speak whilst standing this long, yixing swayed on both wobbly legs, feeling very much like he was floating instead of standing. he felt arms around his waist steadying him from falling and a voice telling him to keep his eyes open.

 

“so…you wanna tell me what happened that roughed you up like this?” kyungsoo asked, some thirty minutes later, when kyungsoo had stopped the blood from gushing and cleaned up his lip and nose.

 

“got mugged, long story,” yixing wasn’t in the mood to discuss the technicalities of his lies yet. he needed to rest before he could think of something believable, but a mugging isn’t so hard to believe, not when he walks through some of the more crime ridden sections of the city to get to his job. kyungsoo doesn’t look like he’s buying it, but at this point yixing couldn’t care less he just wanted to rest.

 

“don’t be so quick to sleep, i think you’ve got a concussion, and we both know that’s not what happened. you never carry anything worth stealing for someone to mug you anyway.” damn kyungsoo and his perceptiveness to yixing.

 

“you think i don’t notice you sneaking around at work? the others may not blink twice about you, but there’s something off about you and i don’t know what it is. what i _do_ know is that you didn’t get mugged, you didn’t even have a shift today.” kyungsoo narrowed his eyes as he took yixing in once more, it was like kyungsoo’s words sunk into his skin and that was all he could hear. his paranoia isn’t something he should be feeding, but it keeps growing and he fears it’ll grow out of control one day. damn kyungsoo! he thought he was being careful enough to not have anyone notice his comings and goings in the hospital, obviously he should have taken even more measures to make _sure_ he came off as non-threatening.

 

“listen, i don’t know what’s your deal, calling me a liar and all but i’m not begging you to believe me. i needed help tending to myself and called the first person i could think of, so thanks for all that you’ve done for me but i’d really appreciate it if you left.” yixing was getting increasingly more frustrated and angry by the minute and kyungsoo nitpicking at what yixing thought was a carefully constructed facade wasn’t helping lighten the mood.

 

kyungsoo seemed to get it however, as he made his way out of baekhyun and yixing’s shared apartment. he looked back to yixing who was struggling to get up from the couch, and exited the apartment. somehow, yixing managed to crawl into their bed to rest, trying to be mindful of the painful bruise that continued to gain it’s color with every passing moment, and the busted lip he achieved. his nose was - thankfully - not broken and the bleeding had already stopped. the victim in question was dead of course, but he managed to smash yixing’s face on the rough wall more than once. yixing was sure the water would wash away any remaining dna that could be found on the victim’s body, or any evidence that could link yixing to the murder. yixing was careful - as usual - and was fully covered to prevent any fingerprints of dna from being found on the victim that could put him in a sticky situation, but better to take extra measures than to be caught right?

 

his brain hurt, thinking felt like it was a physically demanding task instead of an involuntary action, he could feel every thought in his head so he willed himself to let it go and sleep for now.

 

//

 

when baekhyun finally finished up the day’s work on the murder case that just came in he couldn’t _wait_ to get home and sleep it all off. what he didn’t expect however to see his boyfriend already home and asleep, with a large bruise on the side of his face and a busted lip. he contained his horror enough to not immediately wake the other man up and demand to know what happened and who hurt him, but he realized that right now sleeping was the best option for the two of them. they would talk about it in the morning. he snuggled into yixing’s back with his arm around yixing’s waist and slept beside his boyfriend for the first time in weeks.

 

when baekhyun woke up the next day yixing was already out of bed. it was baekhyun’s day off and knowing yixing, he’d still go to work when he’s injured. he got out of bed as fast as he could to try and catch the other before he leaves for the day. luckily, he finds yixing in the kitchen struggling to eat breakfast, wincing when anything touched his lip too hard.

 

“what _happened_ to you?!” baekhyun exclaimed. in his head he would have said this more calmly, but maybe it was stifling the previous night’s desire to wake yixing up and demand answers that made him him like this.

 

“good morning to you too baekhyun,” yixing gave baekhyun an attempt at a lopsided grin, but it only looked like a forced, painful smile. “don’t worry, i’m fine i was just almost mugged yesterday.”

 

“ _what?_ why didn’t you call it in? i didn’t hear anything about it in the station!” baekhyun’s voice just kept getting louder, he really didn’t know why he was yelling but how could this have happened to yixing? how could he _not_ have called it in?

 

“it’s fine! i’m fine, just a little roughed up. nothing i can’t handle, you know me i’m tough.” yixing sounded tired though, and he wasn’t dressed for work. baekhyun checked his watch to see that the time was well passed when yixing would normally leave for work.

 

“so i assume you’re not going to work then?” baekhyun narrowed his eyes, trying to seem like he was actually threatening enough to keep yixing from working when he was so clearly injured.

 

“no, i have a slight concussion along with these beautiful additions to my face so i need to stay home and rest.” he didn’t sound excited to be resting.

 

“well why are you up so early, come back to bed.” baekhyun almost whined wiping at his eyes to indicate how tired he is. yixing chuckled to himself as he nodded along, putting his dishes in the sink. baekhyun stepped forward to offer to wash them for him and motioned for yixing to get to bed while he finished up. he still wanted to find out every detail on the assault but yixing looked exhausted, of course the bruise and the busted lip didn’t exactly help him look more awake but it looked like he hadn’t slept for days…he wonders what keeps him up. the pair haven’t been able to spend any actual time together in their own apartment for too long, and in the brief moments where they _do_ get to see each other yixing’s exhaustion wasn’t as evident as it was just now.

 

when baekhyun finished cleaning up and crawled into bed beside yixing he was happy enough to see that he hadn’t slept yet. he turned to face yixing as the other tried to do the same, but remembered the throbbing bruise on that side of his face so he lay on his back instead. baekhyun scooted closer to yixing, one arm on the other’s chest lazily drawing circles above his shirt.

 

“so how was work?” yixing asked, taking the hand that was on his chest and lacing it with his.

 

“tiring, this new case is impossible to solve.” he tried not to sound as frustrated as he usually does when it comes to the case.

 

“new case?”

 

“yeah, i can’t tell you the details though you know that, but it’s…too challenging there aren’t _any_ leads, no suspects, no evidence, nothing!” he wished the ground would swallow him whole for accepting this case, but he has to solve it, he _will_ solve it.

 

“you know i won’t tell anyone though?” his voice sounded so distant, half asleep really.

 

“of course, but a rule’s a rule yixing you know that. why don’t you just go back to sleep? you sound like you really need it.”

 

“wow, thanks for trying to get rid of me,” yixing tries to joke, but his voice falls flat, he must really be exhausted.

 

“you know i could never, you’re being dramatic.” baekhyun rolls his eyes with an easy chuckle. he could feel yixing falling asleep, could see the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, could hear the steady breaths he was taking. yixing never falls asleep this easily and baekhyun finds himself wishing he would take more days off.

 

“i love you,” baekhyun whispers to yixing, but he knows it falls on deaf ears. yixing was asleep, but he still needed to say it. he wished they could see each other long enough when they weren’t working but both of their schedules never seemed to coincide.

 

//

 

yixing took the next few days off, his bruise was steadily disappearing and his lip didn’t hurt as much as it did before. the day he went back to work at the hospital was when the paranoia caught up to him, he couldn’t help but feel like someone was watching him the entire time, and knowing kyungsoo already was keeping an eye on him didn’t help to off-put the continuously growing irrational fear he was harboring. he needed to keep a lid on it, he needed to act as if everything was normal so as to _not_ get caught.

 

since his last victim, yixing’s received a few more client requests but he turned them all down. he needed to be conspicuous, to lie low, and taking any more clients on would not help him keep to himself. some nights yixing can see baekhyun busting him, can hear a distant shot go off in the distance. on those nights yixing would wake up with the bitter, metallic taste of blood in his mouth. yixing generally spent more nights sleeping at the hospital than at home with baekhyun, but he didn’t need to explain his coming and going in the late hours of the night to anyone in the hospital. it was none of their business so they didn’t ask, but now that he feels like he’s under watchful eyes yixing thinks it may be smarter to spend more nights in his own apartment. it wouldn’t be an issue since he wasn’t going to be taking on any new victims for a while, just until his paranoia calms.

 

//

 

one morning when baekhyun went to work he was called into the captain’s office.

 

“sir? you asked for me?”

 

“ah, baekhyun. have a seat will you?” junmyeon tried to be as formal as possible during work, not allowing any space for casual conversations between the two during work hours.

 

“have you had any luck with the _lay_ case?” junmyeon asked.

 

“well, not really sir, but i’ve been working on it as best as i can with the already given information. which is pretty much zilch.” baekhyun tried not to sound discouraged. it was strange that the captain called him in to ask about the case so out of the blue.

 

“listen, this came from the higher ups. i’m sorry to say this but, you’re to drop the case.” junmyeon stated apologetically.

_wait, what?_ he was to drop the case? why? what changed? he wanted to argue, but he knows this is out of junmyeon’s hands, it came from someone higher up.

 

“do you know why? at all…?” baekhyun was in shock, _yes,_ he was having trouble with the case, but for them to just tell him to drop it this randomly?

 

“no, i was notified just before i called you in. i know as much as you do. all i know is that someone from the higher ups want this case to be dropped, they think it’s a dead-end, a waste of time.” junmyeon tried to explain, but it still refused to click in baekhyun’s mind. how was he to just drop this case? sure, there might not be any evidence linking to any specific suspects, and there’s a big chance this person might not even exist but it was strange to him that they would tell him to drop it.

 

“alright sir. anything else?” he tried to not let his disappointment and confusion show through his expressions but it was hard when junmyeon was too perceptive.

 

“i’m sorry baekhyun, it’s really out of my hands.” the captain tried to explain, but it did nothing to help his dimming mood. now he’d have to open up all those unsolved cases lying on his desk. with nothing left to say, baekhyun departed the captain’s office.

 

it was already shaping up to be a long, bad day for him. three people were brought into custody that day, all for minor crimes but it was on baekhyun to interrogate them. all three criminals claimed they were innocent (which baekhyun knew was _not_ true as they were all caught on cctv footage) and drawled out the interrogation period for much longer than it should be. when his shift finally ended he rushed home, hoping yixing would be there. he wanted to spend the rest of the night as close as humanely possible to him, it’ll be the only way his day could be salvaged.

 

//

 

yixing was home when baekhyun arrived. the hospital’s atmosphere fed his paranoia to no end, so he decided it would be best to come home. his bruise faded tremendously and his busted lip was nothing more than a scab (one that he _really_ wanted to pick at but knew better than to).

 

baekhyun entered their apartment and flopped onto their couch - beside yixing - and screamed into the mattresses.

 

“bad day huh?”

 

“you would _not_ believe how bad it has been.” baekhyun groaned, lifting his head up to look at yixing’s face. yixing thought it was cute, his bottom lip slightly stuck out and his eyebrows were bunched together, it was a sad expression but still so terribly cute. he leaned down to place a soft kiss on baekhyun’s lips.

 

“all cured?” as if, yixing knew baekhyun better than that.

 

“while i would never say no to more kisses, sadly this day has been beyond shit, nothing a quick kiss can solve.”

 

“well i can promise more, but only after you tell me what’s bothering you.”

 

“easy enough, but when did we become this gross?” baekhyun feinted being disgusted with him but yixing knew otherwise.

 

“ohh i don’t know, i think we’ve earned the right to be annoyingly affectionate since we haven’t seen each other properly in so long.” yixing’s tone was playful, but the thought of baekhyun working on the case kept playing in the back of his head like a broken record.

 

“oh shut up when did you get this smart?” this earned baekhyun a punch in the arm, “but anyway, you know that case i told you?”

 

“the near impossible one?”

 

“that’s the one! well junmyeon called me in to tell me someone from the higher ups ordered this case to be dropped…weird huh?”

 

“very, did he say why?” yixing’s heart was beating so wildly he was sure baekhyun could hear the _ba-bump_ of every heartbeat.

 

“nope! just said that was all they told him, _then_ to make things worse i was in charge of interrogating three _idiot_ people brought in for minor crimes. we had all the evidence to detain them for the night but they insisted on their innocence. the cctv footage we had showed each of them committing the crime! one long, long day but you can fix it.” he scooted closer to yixing and laid his head on his shoulder.

 

“there, there,” yixing ran his fingers through baekhyun’s hair and guided the other to lay his head on his lap, “now that you’ve got it off your chest try and forget about it for a while.” he poked baekhyun’s cheek playfully.

 

“yeah, yeah i’m still curious though, i might look into the case secretly. did you know someone from the department - well maybe i’m still not sure, but i assume it’s someone from the department since this isn’t a public case - called in a tip? a name and that’s all. i wonder who it is.” yixing’s heart and mind collectively stopped working.

_what did he say?_

“maybe it’s best if you don’t, i mean if they ordered the case to be dropped they probably had a reason for it.” _please don’t look into it on your own, please spare me from this paranoia baekhyun_ please _don’t look into it._

“i know, but it’s still weird to me? i don’t know really, can we stop talking about it, i missed you.”

 

“you saw me yesterday.” yixing tried to joke, but it came out awkwardly. he hoped baekhyun wouldn’t note how nervous he was. baekhyun sat up, facing yixing and he could only do so much to calm his wildly beating heart.

 

“so? i need to see you more often, i miss you.” baekhyun’s frown was hard to ignore, and yixing didn’t know what to say but baekhyun beat him to it by leaning in and kissing him.

 

he really hoped that baekhyun would stay as far away from this case as possible.

 

//

 

baekhyun went to work normally, but the case still bothered him. he didn’t tell yixing that he would be looking into it for sure, but now he’s certain he _will_ look into it on the down low. he wondered whether he should tell the others about the case being dropped. would they confront him about wanting to look into it, even if the case is technically dropped?

 

he tried not to think about it, tried not to let thoughts of the case distract him too much from the overload of work he has to work on, but it was hard. it was hard not to tell jongdae and the others straight away, he really wanted to, but he didn’t want to take the chance that they might say something about it. he kept it to himself.

 

//

 

even with yixing’s paranoia, he accepted a case. just one. he would need to keep an eye on his future victim, a prestigious doctor in the hospital. kyungsoo’s watchful eyes seemed to follow him everywhere, or at least that’s how it felt to him. he knew he was being impossibly irrational, but he couldn’t help it, with the knowledge that baekhyun was probably still looking into the case, even when yixing had called in his favor was embedded deep in his mind creating even more possibilities for his delusions to run wild.

 

 

it’s been a few days of watching his future victim, but he thinks he may need a few more days to keep trailing the doctor. the client asked for a public assassination, so a public assassination is what they’ll get. it wasn’t cheap either, yixing initially refused the case, with everything going on he didn’t need to add another reason to heighten his paranoia, but the client was persistent. they stayed anonymous, but they may or may not have quadrupled their initial offer. how could he say no?

 

the hospital was having an event in the coming days, that’s when he’ll strike.

 

//

 

the days were getting longer for baekhyun. trying to solve the piles of files that have been living on his desk for months was gruesome, but he was working his way through it. secretly searching for any leads (in the case he was supposed to drop the week before) was proving to be a difficult task. he just wanted to go home and sleep for thirty years, but even as he lays in bed his mind works like clockwork trying to think of anything he missed with this ex-case.

 

he barely noticed that his shift was up for the day but he was beyond relieved to be able to head home. on the ride home he spent half the time hoping yixing was home and the other half thinking about what he would be eating that night. exhaustion ran through every inch of his body thus making cooking an unacceptable option, maybe he would just order in…or if yixing was home he could probably bully him into making food for both of them. he really hoped yixing was home.

 

//

 

yixing _was_ home, but he was paranoid. when baekhyun opened the apartment door he found yixing pacing the length of the apartment. yixing’s assignment was weighing on him. fear clouded his every decision, his every move, his every syllable. between kyungsoo, his assignment, and baekhyun sniffing around his case yixing’s nerves were in shreds.

 

“something bothering you?” baekhyun asked, stepping into the living room. yixing immediately stopped pacing, his body tensed up slightly - only noticeable if you were really paying attention to his body language, which he hoped baekhyun was _not_.

 

“of course not, just thinking.” he spoke too quickly for it to be true.

 

“oh, alright then. are you hungry? i’m starving.” yixing almost let out a breath of relief, his body eventually easing up.

 

“not really, but i could grab a bite, what’re you considering?”

 

“well, i was actually thinking you might be in the mood to cook for us.” baekhyun smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

 

“oh baekhyun.”

 

“come on, you know you want to.” baekhyun poked his cheeks looking up at him and puffing his cheeks up in an attempt to be cute. under any other circumstances yixing might have blushed or laughed with his heart full of love but his entire body tensed up once more.

 

“i’m really tired tonight, maybe another time. just order in or something.” he shrugged him off and stepped across the room. baekhyun followed yixing and clung onto him, his heart was beating so loudly. why was he so nervous and tense? there’s nothing to be afraid of, but nonetheless yixing couldn’t stop thinking about if baekhyun were to find out who he really was and what he’d do then.

 

“come on, yixing pleeeaseeee.” baekhyun was persistent, it was starting to really get on yixing’s nerves.

 

“baekhyun i said _no!”_ yixing snapped, pushing baekhyun away much harder than he intended to. baekhyun stumbled but the hurt that washed over his face was too recognizable. his heart was beating too fast for his breathing to keep up and his sweaty hands wouldn’t stop violently shaking. yixing should apologize he knows he should, but it just wouldn’t come out.

 

//

 

baekhyun tried not to be hurt by yixing. he tried justifying the other man snapping at him so out of the blue by telling himself he was being too persistent or that yixing was just under a lot of stress from work, he told himself it wasn’t personal, but he couldn’t help but feel like it was personal deep down. he lost his appetite.

 

he decided to go to bed early, try to sleep off the day that just kept getting worse as it progressed. yixing lay beside him but he wasn’t facing him. he could tell that he was still awake.

 

“i’m sorry.” yixing mumbled so quietly baekhyun almost didn’t hear him.

 

baekhyun didn’t reply. yixing was spending more time at home but he was almost always either tense beyond compare or it was as if he wasn’t there. he wondered what he wasn’t telling him.

 

//

 

 _it’s going to be fine. everything is going to be fine,_ yixing chanted this to himself like a mantra. it was the day of the event, a few hours till the event to be exact. he was unusually worried, which was strange to his routine - usually, he would be calm and collected in the moments leading to the assassinations.yixing didn’t know why he was so scared, something felt off.

 

he tried to convince himself that it was his paranoia acting up. it wasn’t working out well.

 

//

 

baekhyun thought his day would shape up to be downright awful, before the phone call that is.

 

“seoul national university hospital. 8pm. the roof, _lay_ will be there.” the line was cut in baekhyun’s face. he thought it was probably the same person who called in a tip before. the watch on his wrist said it was a quarter past seven (which was much past his _official_ shift ending hour), he grabbed his jacket and rushed to the hospital where his boyfriend works. there would be no time for him to make a pitstop to see yixing, he would have to get onto the roof as soon as possible.

 

//

 

 _fifteen minutes_ till _lay_ needed to make his mark. he was stationed at the hospital’s roof overlooking the event and his nerves were frayed. he had never wished for an assignment to be executed more quickly than this one.

 

 _ten minutes_ till the time. _lay_ took in a deep breath and tried to will himself into the usual calm before the storm mood.

 

 _five minutes._ he stationed his weapon of choice on the roof and brought his eye to the telescopic sight, cheek pressing on the side of it. not much longer till he was to end this and be at peace, at least that’s what he told himself.

 

however the moment of semi-calmness ended when the roof door he was _sure_ he had locked was kicked open.

 

//

 

baekhyun ran up the last steps leading to the roof. he thought if this _lay_ person was actually good at their job it would be locked, or at least barred, but it wasn’t. he pulled the glock out of his belt and kicked the door open.

 

“stop!” he yelled out onto the roof, relieved to find a figure with a sniper rifle whom he assumed was _lay._

what he wasn’t relieved to find was his boyfriend across from him with the weapon set with the intent to murder the man about to speak. he let his gun drop partially. his entire world tilted sideways.

 

“yixing?”

 

//

 

“yixing?”

 

he wasn’t expecting to see his own boyfriend busting him for an attempted assassination. he wasn’t expecting _anyone._ he stepped away from the sniper, setting it down so as to have as little weight as possible on him when he needed to make a run for it.

 

//

 

“baek-” he cut him off by tackling yixing onto the ground, farther away from the weapon he was to use to _end_ someone’s life. _end,_ as in murder. yixing was going to assassinate someone, _his_ yixing, the same yixing who is afraid of birds. baekhyun knew he shouldn’t focus on his emotions, knew he should separate himself from his feelings at this specific moment, but he let himself hesitate momentarily. that was all yixing needed to flip the fight. in a millisecond yixing had baekhyun below him, holding him in place so he would not struggle.

 

baekhyun would chastise himself for this later, but in that moment he couldn’t help but think that the last time he was beneath yixing he never pictured himself to ever be in this position.

 

“i _really_ don’t want to hurt you.” yixing almost looked genuine but baekhyun’s vision almost went white with pain when yixing struck his leg hard enough for him to hear something crack, maybe he was imagining it. the shooting pain was excruciating, he almost didn’t notice when yixing getting up. in an instant of pure adrenaline baekhyun reached for the gun lying beside him and took a shot at the running man who was once his boyfriend.

 

the figure running towards the door stumbled momentarily, so he must have hit _something_ but it didn’t last. seeing as yixing kept running and quickly disappeared into the distant ajar door. he wiggled slightly trying to get his phone out of his pocket and dialing the number to the only person who’d be able to deal with this situation.

 

“hey-”

 

“junmyeon listen to me i can’t waste more time, i looked into the case you told me to drop - yes i know i shouldn’t have - but it’s yixing! _it’s yixing! do you hear me? my fucking boyfriend is_ lay! _find him,_ i’m pretty sure he broke my leg trying to escape. we’re at seoul national university hospital. _get him.”_ he didn’t give junmyeon the chance to yell at him or even to reply and shut the phone in the captain’s face.

 

//

 

baekhyun managed to have the bullet graze yixing’s thigh, but he couldn’t let himself falter, not even for a moment. he applied pressure to the gushing wound and continued onward.

 

the only person who could have told baekhyun about this was his client, which leads yixing to wonder _who_ the client was. was it someone who knew what he would get yixing into beforehand? was this intentional? his suspicions leaned heavily toward kyungsoo, but he couldn’t dwell on it then, he needed to get going into hiding. as he exited the hospital building he threw his phone (and any other device that could be tracked) along with his wallet in the direction opposite to where he was headed.

 

//

 

at approximately nine in the evening zhang yixing carefully pushed himself into the hidden room he had for himself in seoul. this would be one of his last nights in asia before he was to disappear.

 

//

 

at the same time across the city byun baekhyun sat in a room in seoul national university hospital awaiting treatment from one of the doctors for his injured leg all the while waiting for any news from the police on his boyfriend, whom he just found out was an infamous assassin.

 

it was believed that _lay,_ more commonly known as yixing, found a way to be smuggled out of the country.

 

they never did find him.


End file.
